Abstract This conference will bring together the community of scientists who work at the cutting edge of glycolipid and sphingolipid research and provide a forum for investigators from other scientific fields, so they can network and contribute to this rapidly evolving field. Several companies are also integral to this field, manufacturing biochemical probes as well as commercializing innovative new therapies. Sphingolipids and glycosphingolipids are key cellular lipids involved in multiple biological processes spanning cell growth, signaling, differentiation and cell death. Sphingolipids and glycosphingolipids levels are regulated by complex multi-enzyme biosynthetic and catabolic pathways, the regulation of which remains incompletely understood. The importance of these processes is demonstrated by the severe human metabolic diseases that result from inherited defects in genes encoding the enzymes involved in sphingolipid biosynthesis and degradation. This field has matured over the past two decades due in no small part to this GRC serving as a catalyst driving discovery and innovation. The fundamental knowledge elucidated through this basic research is now being translated to the clinic, utilizing sphingolipid analogs and inhibitors of glyco- and sphingolipid metabolism for human therapy. This meeting will be holding its first ever GRS and so there will be a vibrant student and post-doctoral community attending this meeting. We are therefore reflecting this by changing the structure of the meeting away from traditional sessions (e.g. Biophysics) and instead have themed sessions to make the content of the material more cohesive and accessible to new comers to the field. A lipid class relevant to the community will be discussed in depth in a single session. Individual sessions will include talks spanning biophysics, biochemistry, cell biology, pathophysiology and therapy in one cohesive set of talks and discussions. This will also help make the topics more accessible to newcomers to the field and to the more junior GRS participants and has direct relevance to the remit of NIAID, NCI and NIDDK. Gender equality is a primary aim and we will include a balance of talks from investigators representing all career stages and sectors. This will give a dynamic, vibrant and cross-generational feel to the meeting with a major focus on the showcasing of female role models from all career stages. `